ML83541621

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Tags

Field notes/sketch; No bird

Observation details

1 on floating marsh "paddy" in Spanish Creek just south of Northern Lagoon, CTWS. Shortly after I arrived at CTV, Robert Crawford, an assistant to Sam Tillett, mentioned that he had seen a Yellow-breasted Crake on two occasions over the past three weeks in Spanish Creek. When I informed him that this may be the first record for Belize if confirmed, Sam Tillett became very interested. At 1530 Sam, Robert, Ruben Crawford, and I took off in Sam's new boat for Spanish Creek. Upon arrival in the area ten minutes later, Robert said, "Over there on that patch of vegetation. That's where it is." The vegetation was a 150m² island of cane-like marsh grass with a few spindly sub-shrubs and a densely matted dead cane grass "substrate." As small as the patch was, it still seemed like a formidable task finding a tiny 12 cm secretive rail, but Robert insisted that he had been able to re-find the bird easily on his last visit. As we cut the motor and drifted up to the island, we immediately saw the bird walking on top of the matted cane near the western edge of the patch. It walked slowly away and in and out of the "subterranean" maze of vegetation. With several brief looks at various parts of the bird through the vegetation we were able to see the whole bird one part at a time. We were confident it was a Yellow-breasted Crake, but because of its rarity, we wanted better looks to leave no doubt. After waiting patiently for 10 minutes without success, we motored around to the east side, but still no luck. We motored back to the west side and immediately saw the bird in the same area where it was originally found. This time, over a 10-15 minute period, we got excellent views of the bird in direct late afternoon sunlight (1620-1635 hours). We all agreed on the following description: a tiny bird not much bigger than a Common Yellowthroat that once landed in the same general area. Chunky with a short pointed tail and short wings that did not quite reach the tip of the tail. Its bill was dark gray, its eye dark, and legs and feet bright yellow. Its bill was short (shorter than its head) and not especially thick-based, definitely not thick like a Sora's, but more like that of a Ruddy Crake. The bird was in fresh plumage, but may have been molting, as it appeared to be missing one or more tertials. Its head was pale gray (the face below and behind the eye) extending across the upper breast. It had a distinct white supercilium and dark (brown?) crown. It had a black eye stripe below the supercilium that extended from the bill to behind the eye. It's throat was white merging gradually to gray on the face and upper breast. It had a strong yellow wash on the sides of its breast extending into the nape and becoming paler across the breast, but merging to gray on the upper breast, then to white on the throat. Its flanks were boldly barred black and white, with the black and white pattern becoming irregular and spotted on lower flanks and vent area. The under tail and the tips of the undertail coverts were rich brown. There was a suffusion of yellow in the belly area. The pattern of its upperparts was complex. Its back was black with two bold lateral white stripes along each side of the back near the scapulars. The feathers of the back [and part of the scapulars?] were edged variously with pale brown and white (it was difficult to get a detailed feather pattern as the bird was constantly moving). The scapulars and/or lesser and median wing coverts were rich tawny to rufous-brown with no barring. The greater wing coverts were black with irregular scattered white spotting, and may have been edged with light brown. Only the tips of the remiges were visible. The bird did not respond to any of the six vocalizations of this species on the Voices of the New World Rails tape (Hardy et al. 1996). It uttered a soft ¿tic¿ call on occasion, which it gave in an irregular series with each note well separated.

Technical information

Model

iPhone 6 Plus

Lens

iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2

ISO

40

Focal length

4.2 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/2.2

Shutter speed

1/120 sec

Dimensions

1348 pixels x 967 pixels

Original file size

314.8 KB